On Osprey Time

Hope trying to do a hover dive over the lake.  Interviewer: Now that Hope and Lucky are free flying birds, what is next? Ospreyologist: Learning to feed themselves.   Interviewer: How and why should they learn to fish if their father feeds them  regularly?  Ospreyologist: Fishing is instinctual. The hunt, or rather fishing, is in their blood, in  every cell of their body, just like flying. You can’t hold them down. Their very being  tells them to do it.  Interviewer: When will they stop taking handouts from Orpheus?  Ospreyologist: When they are good enough at fishing that they don’t need  supplements.  Naive Ospreys Hope and Lucky are fascinated by the water, captivated by it,  frequently dragging their talons along the lake’s surface to get a feel for this unique  medium. They practice targeting and swooping down on floating sticks, snatching  them up like they would a sunfish.  There is much that goes into the nuances of fishing: The young must integrate  information such as sun gla

It’s dangerous living at the top—being an apex predator and a bioaccumulator means an Osprey gets mega-doses of whatever contaminants are in the water. In doing so,   they are the bellwether of the environment and of enormous importance to residents of   Cayuga Lake. Orpheus and Ophelia are living indicators of our lake’s healthy eco system and water quality.   Advertisement promoting DDT, courtesy of the Science History Institute.   Ospreys as Bioaccumulation   During the 1950-60s, Osprey populations in the US crashed, going nearly extinct  because of the pesticide DDT ( dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane ) in water. DDT  bio accumulation or gradually built up in an Osprey’s fatty tissues occurs after eating Spraying DDT cavalierly in suburban and swimming pools, courtesy of Science History Institute.  contaminated fish. Such bioaccumulation began when zooplankton incorporated DDT   from the water supply into their cells. Fish grazed upon the zooplankton, concentrating   DDT in their